Finally, excise duty on petrol and diesel has been cut down. Is it a majoritarian government’s concern for the people overburdened by price rise, or rather weighing its prospects of winning upcoming Assembly elections in a number of States, the biggest being Uttar Pradesh? The setback the BJP suffered in recent bypolls indicates it’s the latter and not the love for the common man. The ‘Diwali gift’ of excise cut on petrol by Rs 5 and diesel by Rs 10 by the Centre, saw a number of NDA-ruled States, including Assam, Goa, Uttarakhand, UP, Tripura announcing additional reduction. It is expected to not only bring relief to the common man but also reduce inflation, tweeted Home Minister Amit Shah. What has gone unsaid is the party’s not-so-impressive performance in the bypolls and perhaps the results being seen as a wake-up call.

The ruling BJP faced a humiliating defeat in Himachal Pradesh, where price rise and high oil prices were a major polls issue. The Congress swept all three Assembly seats and winning Mandi too, the Chief Minister’s bastion. In West Bengal, it was again battered by the TMC, which won all four Assembly byelections by big margins. In Rajasthan, it failed to capitalise on Congress factional fight and couldn’t win either of the two seats. In Haryana, its partner the INLD, which has expressed concern over the farmer’s protest won the seat.

The saving grace, however, was Assam and Madhya Pradesh, where it won all five Assembly seats and two respectively, and also the Khandwa Lok Sabha seat. It did make an inroad into TRS’s Telangana. In all, the BJP won only seven of the 29 State Assembly seats for which elections were held in 14 States and arch-rival, Congress won eight, giving the beleaguered grand old party a bit of hope.

The saffron party, however, doesn’t want to admit that ensuing poll prospects is a reason for the fuel cut, for they argue that if that was the case then results would have been different in BJP-ruled Assam and Madhya Pradesh. An argument, few and even within the party would find difficult to buy. While the debate shall continue both within and outside, the fuel cut should be seen as the beginning, for undoubtedly election sops shall follow as the next calculated move to retain hegemony.   

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